Yesaya 6:13

6:13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, ¹  like one of the large sacred trees ²  or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. ³  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” ⁴ 

Yesaya 10:22

10:22 For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as ⁵  the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. ⁶  Destruction has been decreed; ⁷  just punishment ⁸  is about to engulf you. ⁹ 

Yesaya 17:6

17:6 There will be some left behind,

like when an olive tree is beaten –

two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top,

four or five on its fruitful branches,”

says the Lord God of Israel.

Yesaya 24:13

24:13 This is what will happen throughout ¹⁰  the earth,

among the nations.

It will be like when they beat an olive tree,

and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 37:4

37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ¹²  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ¹³  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 37:31-32

37:31 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit. ¹⁵ 

37:32 “For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;

survivors will come out of Mount Zion.

The intense devotion of the Lord who commands armies ¹⁶  will accomplish this.

Yesaya 37:1

37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, ¹⁷  he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple.

Kisah Para Rasul 19:18

19:18 Many of those who had believed came forward, ¹⁸  confessing and making their deeds known. ¹⁹ 

Yehezkiel 6:8

6:8 “‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. ²⁰ 

Yehezkiel 14:22

14:22 Yet some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their behavior and their deeds, you will be consoled about the catastrophe I have brought on Jerusalem – for everything I brought on it.

Yoel 2:32

2:32 It will so happen that

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. ²¹ 

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem ²²  there will be those who survive, ²³ 

just as the Lord has promised;

the remnant ²⁴  will be those whom the Lord will call. ²⁵ 

Zakharia 13:8-9

13:8 It will happen in all the land, says the Lord,

that two-thirds of the people ²⁶  in it will be cut off and die,

but one-third will be left in it. ²⁷ 

13:9 Then I will bring the remaining third into the fire;

I will refine them like silver is refined

and will test them like gold is tested.

They will call on my name and I will answer;

I will say, ‘These are my people,’

and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” ²⁸ 

Matius 7:14

7:14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Roma 9:27

9:27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children ²⁹  of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved,

Roma 11:4-6

11:4 But what was the divine response ³⁰  to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people ³¹  who have not bent the knee to Baal.” ³² 

11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

[6:13]  ¹ tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”

[6:13]  ² tn Heb “like a massive tree or like a big tree” (perhaps, “like a terebinth or like an oak”).

[6:13]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has “which in the felling, a sacred pillar in them.” Some take מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) as “stump,” and translate, “which, when chopped down, have a stump remaining in them.” But elsewhere מַצֶּבֶת refers to a memorial pillar (2 Sam 18:18) and the word resembles מַצֶּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”). בָּם (bam, “in them”) may be a corruption of בָּמָה (bamah, “high place”; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has במה). אֳשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) becomes a problem in this case, but one might emend the form to וּכְּאֲשֵׁרָה (ukÿ’asherah, “or like an Asherah pole”) and translate, “like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole.” Though the text is difficult, the references to sacred trees and a sacred pillar suggest that the destruction of a high place is in view, an apt metaphor for the judgment of idolatrous Judah.

[6:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “a holy offspring [is] its sacred pillar.” If מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) is taken as “stump,” one can see in this statement a brief glimpse of hope. The tree (the nation) is chopped down, but the stump (a righteous remnant) remains from which God can restore the nation. However, if מַצֶּבֶת is taken as “sacred pillar” (מַצֶּבָה, matsevah; see the previous note), it is much more difficult to take the final statement in a positive sense. In this case “holy offspring” alludes to God’s ideal for his covenant people, the offspring of the patriarchs. Ironically that “holy” nation is more like a “sacred pillar” and it will be thrown down like a sacred pillar from a high place and its land destroyed like the sacred trees located at such shrines. Understood in this way, the ironic statement is entirely negative in tone, just like the rest of the preceding announcement of judgment. It also reminds the people of their failure; they did not oppose pagan religion, instead they embraced it. Now they will be destroyed in the same way they should have destroyed paganism.

[10:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “are like.”

[10:22]  ⁶ sn The twofold appearance of the statement “a remnant will come back” (שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב, she’ar yashuv) in vv. 21-22 echoes and probably plays off the name of Isaiah’s son Shear-jashub (see 7:3). In its original context the name was meant to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), but here it has taken on new dimensions. In light of Ahaz’s failure and the judgment it brings down on the land, the name Shear-jashub now foreshadows the destiny of the nation. According to vv. 21-22, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a remnant of God’s people will return; the bad news is that only a remnant will be preserved and come back. Like the name Immanuel, this name foreshadows both judgment (see the notes at 7:25 and 8:8) and ultimate restoration (see the note at 8:10).

[10:22]  ⁷ tn Or “predetermined”; cf. ASV, NASB “is determined”; TEV “is in store.”

[10:22]  ⁸ tn צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) often means “righteousness,” but here it refers to God’s just judgment.

[10:22]  ⁹ tn Or “is about to overflow.”

[24:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the midst of” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[24:13]  ¹¹ sn The judgment will severely reduce the earth’s population. See v. 6.

[37:4]  ¹² tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[37:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[37:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The remnant of the house of Judah that is left will add roots below and produce fruit above.”

[37:32]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the zeal of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to protect and restore them.

[37:1]  ¹⁷ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[19:18]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “came”; the word “forward” is supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning and to conform to the contemporary English idiom.

[19:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “confessing and disclosing their deeds.” BDAG 59 s.v. ἀναγγέλλω 2 has “W. ἐξομολογεῖσθαι: ἀ. τὰς πράξεις αὐτο'ν make their deeds known Ac 19:18.”

[19:18]  sn Making their deeds known. Ephesus was a major pagan religious center with much syncretistic “magical” practice. Coming to Jesus changed the lives and attitudes of these believers, creating a social impact.

[6:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “when you have fugitives from the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the lands.”

[2:32]  ²¹ tn While a number of English versions render this as “saved” (e.g., NIV, NRSV, NLT), this can suggest a “spiritual” or “theological” salvation rather than the physical deliverance from the cataclysmic events of the day of the Lord described in the context.

[2:32]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:32]  ²³ tn Heb “deliverance”; or “escape.” The abstract noun “deliverance” or “escape” probably functions here as an example of antimeria, referring to those who experience deliverance or escape with their lives: “escaped remnant” or “surviving remnant” (Gen 32:8; 45:7; Judg 21:17; 2 Kgs 19:30, 31; Isa 4:2; 10:20; 15:9; 37:31, 32; Ezek 14:22; Obad 1:17; Ezra 9:8, 13-15; Neh 1:2; 1 Chr 4:43; 2 Chr 30:6).

[2:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and among the remnant.”

[2:32]  ²⁵ tn The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to indicate action in the imminent future.

[13:8]  ²⁶ tn The words “of the people” are supplied in the translation for clarity (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT).

[13:8]  ²⁷ sn The fractions mentioned here call to mind the affliction of God’s people described by Ezekiel, though Ezekiel referred to his own times whereas Zechariah is looking forward to a future eschatological age. Ezekiel spoke of cutting his hair at God’s command (Ezek 5:1-4) and then of burning a third of it, striking a third with a sword, and scattering the rest. From this last third a few hairs would survive to become the nucleus of a new Israel. It is this “third” Zechariah speaks of (v. 9), the remnant who will be purified and reclaimed as God’s covenant people.

[13:9]  ²⁸ sn The expression I will say ‘It is my people,’ and they will say ‘the Lord is my God’ is reminiscent of the restoration of Israel predicted by Hosea, who said that those who had been rejected as God’s people would be reclaimed and once more become his sons and daughters (Hos 2:23).

[9:27]  ²⁹ tn Grk “sons.”

[11:4]  ³⁰ tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”

[11:4]  ³¹ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.

[11:4]  ³² sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.